Putting Down One Group Won't Elevate Another

Check out this article:

Are you Racist?

This article is scary with it's extreme PC stuff. Have you noticed our society wants everyone shoved into their little demographic boxes and if you do not fit anywhere, you don't matter. Am I weird to react to this article saying, "Hey people are people, why does everything have to be about race and color?" and "Why does it seem like they don't want people talking to each other?"

I believe the global elites are using the race thing to do a divide and conquer. Race is a focus and a tool for them to divide and conquer. The 1 percent will cheer as they have blacks, whites and Latinos and other races all fight. I believe they even use immigration as a pressure on countries too. I do not blame immigrants who simply want to survive, but they are denied decent livings in one place so the elites can suppress wages in another. They are used as pawns for wars and for economic purposes.  As they destroy the economy, they would rather people fight among themselves rather then notice the real problems, and how society is becoming more corrupt. I go with the Bible on race:

Acts 17:26 KJV

"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."

So what we see is the left doing the new "white bashing" thing focused on "white privilege" where every white person is presented as wealthy and the oppressor and someone that makes 6 figures a year and lives in Mayberry, and the Right does its thing which is play it's blame game which seems to center on blaming poor people especially African Americans who are poor though whites are often included as the source of all the country's problems. They of course put down anyone who is on welfare and act like jobs can be picked off a tree.

 I hate both political sides.

I'm not an Anarchist, but I found this article written by one of some interest. He definitely well defines how states can play the divide and conquer games using race to fulfill their sociopathic goals. He uses hair color as a metaphor for race.

Race: The Divide and Conquer Tool of Tyrants

A second and final thought experiment: imagine for a moment that you are a sociopath, and that you aspire to rule over a people, living off the sweat of their brows as a parasite. Your biggest challenge will be to keep the people’s eyes off of you and on one another when the problems inherent to parasitic relationships begin to arise.

As your taxation ushers in poverty, you can dodge the bullet if the grays believe that the redheads are milking the system. As your regulations bring unemployment, you’re safe if the balds believe the jobs are being taken by the brunettes. When your corporatism causes rioting, you are in the clear if the silvers believe that the mixed-hues are given legal preferential treatment. When you want to go to war and must convince the people to fund it, you would do well to demonize the savage raven-heads on the other side of the world.

Racism is the friend to and the creation of the controlling collectivist—a redundant term, to be sure.

The truth is that there is only one race at issue here, and that is the human race. It is just as inane to classify by melanin as it is to classify by height, age, shoe size, chin shape, or eye color. Such groupings are tools of the State, and as such, are to be soundly rejected.

What does playing "privilege" games do but breed resentment and distance between people? Are people going to befriend their "oppressors?". Why do they seem to want black and white people walking on eggshells among each other?  If I am a white person talking to a person of another race, why not be real instead of following endless PC rules? That is a person who is most likely to turn into a friend. The narcissists and sociopaths that run our society want to divide every group they can and create as much hatred as possible.

Will another group of people find dignity in life when they are always patronized?  I'm so poor that if I came out against anyone more privileged then me, the only friends I would have left would be two homeless friends from my old town.

I would like to ask someone how does bashing white people lift up anyone? And why do all these liberals present white people as all one monolithic group that seems to be all wealthy and right out of the suburbs? Conversely they seem to see black people and other races too all monolithically too. Everyone's a cookie-cutter according to color. Remember philanthropy can be a cover for sadism.

Sure racism is a problem. I saw an inter-racial couple I was friends with almost get jumped in Chicago by some frat boys. I was thrown out of a skating park because I brought in 10 clients who were African American. Just for being with my clients when I was a residential counselor, they and I would hear racial slurs.  I almost got beaten up in a mall when I was with another client to the point security was called in.

The South kept black people out of restaurants, colleges, schools, business establishments, and drinking fountains before the Civil Rights movement. There are still Klu Klux Klan members. However racism can go all ways. I was laughed at when applying for a job and told I wasn't the right color. I was turned away from another job. There are people being knocked out in "knock-out" games for being the wrong color in some places. In the wrong place and wrong time, anyone can be a victim of racism. Wickedness is sadly a thing that affects all of humanity.

My own race is complicated. I am a dark enough white, that I had an African American man come up to me, during a friendly chat when we were both in a park, and ask me if I had Indian blood? I gave him an honest answer, "I don't know.". Others in my German ancestry dominated town have asked me if I am Greek or Italian.  I sometimes even get the subtle feeling that my more dark looks are one reason not to be liked in my family especially among the blonde and blue eyed set within my mother's family.  No one looks like me around here.  I'm lightly olive toned with almost black hair that is rapidly going to grey.

I spent my young life, working and living in predominantly African-American communities, working with troubled youth and in inner city schools. I lived in a "ghetto" area where I was the minority in two different neighborhoods. My best friends when I was young were Vietnamese.

On his #11, I wanted to ask him if he is high? Anyone without cash, of ALL races gets crushed by the justice system. The police state is growing for everyone. This writer lives in his own classist bubble seeing white people as wealthy and able to afford justice. According to him, no white person can do anything right. Even the guy who marched with Martin Luther King still stinks if he is the wrong race. I hate to tell the guy but white and poor means being crushed too. They may have started with the crackdowns in the ghetto, but unless someone is living under rock or under a mountain of cash, they would know one most often buys their justice today.

I have known poor people who were white without bail money who got crushed by the system too. Here they want division too, where he wants to have people of one race think that the other is getting nothing but easy breaks. This keeps people from asking too many questions of a system in general that is growing far more corrupt. I am horrified watching the police brutality grow, with the right wing defending the cops trained to grow more militaristic and the extreme sides of the left wing acting like the system is still just for "some". It's just for those with cash. Divide and conquer. They can do the round-ups and federalize the police force, using racial divides to put up endless smoke-screens.

The guy who wrote the "Are you Racist?" article emphasizes differences between people and patronizes people of other races as well. I believe this kind of stuff is worsening racism in America. It sounds like it was written by a Committee for Mind Color and 1984 "proper speech" rules.  There are aspects of the left that scare the crap out of me. The term "people of color" is patronizing too. Am I a person of color? Everyone is on the spectrum somewhere from lighter to darker. Do they think this stuff will actually fix race relations? Are they nuts? Just read his endless rules, and his message to focus on racism above all else, and you will be afraid to open your mouth in fear of offending someone. That's not going to build a relationship with anybody.

Even later update: while I came to understand some troubles people of other races may encounter, I was right about this stuff creating more division. I'm tired of reading books that act like there is no such thing as a poor white person. CRT and "Wokeism" is actually making life for all of us worse. Always it boils down to the elites use this crap as they steal trillions from the tills, and the division serves them best. I'm tired of the "woke people" boiling everything down to gender and race too. The "woke" are elitists too that don't give a damn about economic oppression crushing people of all colors and about the growing tyranny from Covid.  

Does Fat Mean Being Stared At?

Overweight woman photographs strangers staring at her

An obese woman has captured the cruel looks and stares she attracts in public by photographing herself in different social settings. Haley Morris-Cafiero, 37, an artist from Memphis, Tennessee, is seen sitting in restaurants, out shopping and strolling around bustling tourist attractions such as Times Square while curious passers-by are captured in the background. 

Talking about the revealing collection of images she writes on her website: 'I have always been aware of people making faces, commenting and laughing at me about my size.' She admits that her weight has been a constant battle and growing up she often felt 'left out and awkward'. Instead of talking about her body she refers to 'my uncontrollable exterior'. 

On the subject of her eating habits she told MailOnline: 'My biggest temptation has to be donuts. They contain all of the caloric evils in one round, portable container: fried, bread and sugar,' Explaining what inspired her picture series titled Wait Watchers, she said: 'I decided to photograph myself sitting alone on the Times Square stairs to capture my solitude in a busy crowd.

I'm not so sure about this. What if the people were looking at her getting her picture taken? Was the camera even hidden? If it wasn't you are not going to get a fair look, people are going to wonder why the camera is there? In my area of the country, she is not that fat, she is not exceptional, she would blur into the background mostly. Even in the picture above, the woman in the plaid coat is near her size.

She does seem kind of awkward, that alone can attract people's attention. Don't take this wrong, I think fat people have the right to dress badly as everyone else and be left in peace, but I found myself thinking, if I was that size and with the wide variety of clothes in size 18-20, the size I am guessing she wears, I'd be dressed a whole lot better. Clothing comes near and dear for us super-sized folks. She seems to dress "young" for her age. Hope folks don't get upset with me for saying that, maybe I have this personal bugaboo about fat women who dress so down almost reinforcing the role they are expected to play. Rebel a bit, and allow yourself some style.

That may be more about "me", but I found myself thinking and feeling guilty about it, "Why are you dressed so badly, why are you wearing red shoes with the primary colors blue and green!- Fashion alert!" Remember I am poor myself and probably break endless fashion rules, but that one bugged me. She dresses like she is still a teen. Clinton and Stacy could have a field day on "What Not To Wear". I wish she would buy herself a pretty dress and a nice necklace to wear or even something that she is COMFORTABLE in wearing.

Anyhow, one other thing I thought, is "YOU ARE BARELY FAT!" Ok, she isn't svelte, but I could go to the local Wal-mart and find 10 people who outweigh her by at least 150lbs within 20 minutes. Does she expect people to stare being that weight? Isn't this setting one's self up as a victim? And how is someone like myself to feel who is 500lbs who this woman would be functional and "thin" in comparison to?

People stared at me. When I was near 700lbs, I lived in a big city, and well they looked, I was so unique, it was like the circus came to town as I bumbled down the sidewalk at a huge weight. I had to learn to get used to it, and had the attitude "Give them something to look at!" I know today if I am "new" somewhere, I can get the CURIOSITY looks and yes I even get the RUDE looks, every supersized fat person knows. Today I weigh less, but I am still hugely fat and I am tromping around with a hearing aid, a leg double the size of the other and either a cane or a walker. When I go without the walker, I trumble around from side to side with the cane, because my balance is gone so I do not have a normal gait. One thing being an artist myself, my dress style is different, and well I do stand out, and do not wear what people consider "average fashion", think "hippie art teacher" in long dresses. I dress for myself. Yes I sure do, I wear what is comfortable to me and what I LIKE.

She is young, well 7 years younger then me, one thing when you grow old enough, there is less gawking. There is a lot of older and fatter people out there. Past a certain age, it just doesn't matter. Once you enter "grandma" territory, even if you are childless, there does seem to be less judgment out there based on your looks. That said however why walk around in pain from people judging your looks?

My balding head, skin sores, and almost 700lb body was a trial by fire, that allowed me to bust open the locks on the beauty prison and escape for good. I wonder if I walk around now imparting the viewpoint it doesn't matter. Look all you want if you want. Some may say, hey you've left your mug off your own blog for over three years. I posted one picture of my body on here. But isn't that the point? Why should EVERYTHING be about our looks? I want my looks to take backseat to what I have to say. Now what would I say to this lady if I ever met her?  I would say, "you are healthy, you are only mildly overweight, you have a good career as an art professor, life's not that bad!"

Maybe life for me has been easier having spent my life living in two smaller towns, the last one quite small and this one just a bit larger. If a place is small enough, you do ebb into the background with time, everyone's seen you so you are no longer a "shock" or a "curiosity".

I went around my last town and this one, not really even thinking about anyone looking at me. The last time anyone made fun of me overtly, was two times in the last five years. I had this woman at the library give me this horrified look of disgust who turned giggling to her friend next to her, and this woman at a health class for the elderly and disabled say mean things to me for being fat. So it's going to happen. What do you do? Try and stand up for yourself and move to the nice people. There is always going to be someone who doesn't like someone for the way they look or even are.

I just don't buy this idea that a size 18 woman in American society is being stared at for being fat when the AVERAGE American woman is only 3 sizes off.  Take pictures of me walking around, let's see what happens, people in small towns smile at each other. I'd like to catch pictures of people SMILING at me. Am I crazy? The auto shop man smiled at me, the waitress did, the people at book club, when I last got out and around.

Could I make an art show of that? Look I know fat discrimination exists but looks aren't everything. Be someone beyond your looks. Does anyone understand what I mean here? Those other people in the crowd even if they are not fat they have troubles too.

My response to Marily Wann's Latest: "You Can Be Fat and Fit!"

[cite for picture above]

Big Deal: You Can Be Fat and Fit

I am going to start this with the caveat that there can be people of large sizes and large proportions who certainly can be in great shape, aerobically and otherwise. The large sized weight lifter that made it to the Olympics is probably in better shape then most large people. There are football players, wrestlers and others who play sports at heavier and larger sizes. There are many midsized people who do enjoy sports, dancing and active living. All the best to them. Stay as active as you can and enjoy life as much as you can no matter your size. A lot of people MY size are totally bedbound, the housebound doctors have told me, so I even say by the grace of God go I. So enjoy but now I must address yet another article that just adds to the pile of confusion out there. Are there Healthy smaller fat people? Sure. Are the scientists finding proof, that one doesn't have to be a skinny-minny to be "healthy" and when it comes to some problems like pneumonia that it actually may be a detriment...Sure.

But newsflash....this is up to a certain point. In most cases dependent on height, up to the mid-200s line.

Over 300lbs for most people, the breathing is affected, movement is affected and more. I mean how far does the delusion have to go and the active denials? Sad to say this one even made it to mainstream media on CNN

Marilyn Wann states in the article...

"Another recent study found people who were "metabolically healthy" and overweight or obese had no higher death risk than metabolically healthy "normal" weight people."

How many fat people are "metabolically healthy"? That would be an interesting question to ask especially for the supersized given the very idea of metabolism has been set aside by the diet industry. I obviously am NOT metabolically healthy. Though would they say someone at a supersized weight who suffers from eating disorders which has led them to a high weight is? I am a bit confused by that study and doubt it applies to those in the super-sized weight categories.

Wann continues:

"I take an interest in the topic because I'm fat and because I don't have a death wish. I'm also interested because, like so many fat people, I've encountered weight discrimination when I seek routine medical care. I was 26 years old when I was denied the right to purchase health insurance. I had no significant history of illness or injury. I was just fat. That day, I became a fat rights activist."

What is this talk about a "death wish"? I often have pondered what if Wann did get ill? It is strange to me I am still hearing the same lines written in the mid 1990s. Most women her age, she is two years older then me which makes her 46, are starting to face some health problems, that includes THIN women. Most of my friends who have hit the age of 40 or over have dealt with at least ONE health issue that took some degree of comprehensive health care. She seems to have a very strong Baby Boomer ethos rather then that of a Generation Xer with a whole "we are going to live forever" theme to it.

Does illness as a fat person mean having a "death wish" or that you did something wrong? This is the "healthism" stuff I've mentioned in passing.  One ponders this. And who cares if she had some history of injury or illness? Should anyone who hasn't been there think anything less of anyone who has? Should one give out medals to those blessed with good genetics and good fortune in avoiding car accidents, thyroid issues, some arthritis,  a hole in the snow to trip in, or a cup of too hot of coffee spilling on the leg? She is right about weight discrimination in the medical arena, I certainly have explored that issue myself. She is also correct about the non availability of medical equipment but should the response of the fat be an enforced smiles, "we aren't that sick anyhow" response? Or demanding that some changes be made to the above? Yes too much blaming the fat happens and weight loss techniques like WLS that fail and maim and all the biases!  But what if I said to Marilyn Wann, fat is often the RESULT of illness a symptom in itself, that is where size activists who believe the way she does, refuse to get on board. She continues in the article to praise HAES which I of course disagree with. She talks about those living to 65. Long-lived society?, actually the lifespans in America are dropping.

"Here's a finding from the recent research that didn't make the headlines: For people over 65, being fat wasn't associated with increased risk, not even for the fattest old people. When do most people die, in our increasingly long-lived society? Over age 65, perhaps?"

This part of her article really disturbed me though....

"I also learned this week that a highly accurate way to predict a person's risk of dying is to see how easily they can get up from the floor. I'm trying to imagine how different our health care system would be if, instead of focusing on weight and weight loss, caregivers did the sitting-rising test instead."

How many supersized especially extremely super-sized people can get off the floor? I fail this test massively. Why? I fell down twice and know I cannot get off the floor. I was stuck and it was terrifying both times, and in one case, needed three grown men to help get me up to the place where I could finish the job in getting up all the way. Wann seems to have this edge to her articles where someone being sick, is enough to prove them wrong or "bad". That one would be an interesting sociological study and essay. We live in a society now where sick equals someone is "bad", instead of just with the admittance of the natural flow of things on this earth. Why must caregivers do the sitting-rising test? That one confused me. Okay my thin doctor gets down on the ground and gets up? So what? They probably can go camping and other things I miss. What does that prove? Did she think this one through?

With my failures to get off the floor, at least I was saved the medical bills from calling the paramedics to bring me to a standing position. My first fall I wrote about and the second one I had only weeks later, and at that point switched to a walker due to my balance issues. Since this summer there hasn't been any more falls. For years, due to youth, and after my initial weight loss from the massive weight gain, I did practice getting on the floor and then getting up, to make sure I still "could" but I lost the ability with time anyway, and remember in my case, I am not bedbound and tried to stay as active as I could including physical therapy. So what does that test say to fat people but hey you midsized people who can still get down on the floor and play with your puppy or your kids or scrub a spot on the floor are okay and those of you whose weight has become too heavy for you to lift off the floor are not? Is she living in reality here?

Hey I could take some of these edicts from on high if she did admit, "OK I am talking for smaller sized fat people here, I know you supersized or in my case extreme super-sized folks have other concerns" but she does not, she expects the HAES formula to work, and issues a blanket edict of "You Can be Fat and Fit!" Um no..... I am even facing battling a leg infection over the last month, I am not sure what has brought on the reaffirmed battles with leg infections, this time with huge fevers to go along with them, once I hit near 104. Trust me I am sad because I struggled with this for years, having 6-7 of these a year for so long and many times in the hospital, and recently I went almost an entire year without a leg infection in my lymphedema leg and being thrown back into the infection merry-go-round obviously is very frightening to me. I almost have lost my life to this stuff before. What brought it on? I am not sure, and even have the worrying feeling that my intense commitment to a physical therapy and walking program brought these latest infections on despite improved sugars.
Hey I write this blog knowing I live in a society where the prevailing ethos is unless you are healthy and well, [and wealthy in a lot of cases] you aren't worth listening too, but since it's an ethos I reject, I speak out anyway.


Wann continues:

"How much healthier would we be? How much more would we actually enjoy healthy living, free from weight judgment? How much time and money would we save? How much discrimination and human tragedy could we avoid? I'm guessing it'd be tons."

How about just some reality? How about some understanding? How about some size activists admitting that people like me exist? How about telling the truth about weight while at the same time demanding good treatment for fat people and good medical care without shame and hatred even if we are indeed stuck on the floor when we fall down? How about admitting what is going on? 

See:

Health At Every Size? And Healthism in the Size Acceptance Movement"

"Seeing Through the Obesity Lies"

When Fat Identity Politics Goes TOO Far!

This is Thin Privilege

"This blog showcases examples of thin privilege in order to illustrate fatphobia and fat discrimination."

Does this mean I can start a blog to call out those who are breathing privileged? How about mobility privileged? How about hearing privileged? I demand my rights!

Have these people lost it?

I remember in elementary school reading a story called Harrison Bergeron. This fits it, yes the world has gone this INSANE. In this story those who are too smart have their brains blocked, those who can dance are weighed down, well you get the idea...

"THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General."

I told a friend the other day, that actually all this special groups right stuff when taken to an extreme actually is creating more division between people, we should be seeking integration of different people instead of all being balkanized into our little camps. While we should be able to choose who we assemble with, there is a purpose for basic laws against discrimination out there, such as job and other discrimination against the old, disabled and other races. Those protections make sense. I understand there being groups to help a certain segment of people out, like disability support and even NAAFA itself if they had stuck with the Aid to Fat Americans program. However this goes way beyond a sane point. This is hyper extreme identity politics craziness, you know the kind that assumes one party is the "evil oppressor". When you start focusing on what the other people have and resent them for having it "better" then you and in return start this division nonsense, it is a path to nowhere good.

The global elites and types who wish to have profit and power get more of each when they have every little group of people split into endless fractured pieces. This way instead of asking why some on top out there have escaped with all the booty and why our cities are rotting from the inside out, they can look at the little people fighting among themselves and laugh. Here too conformity in this society has gotten to a crazy point, and why all the focus on dividing people up into a variety of special interest groups? I hope if I ever start talking about "thin privilege" that someone tells me to shove off. Don't these people have any thin friends? Give me a break!

Remember what I wrote about on this blog at various times about the fat letting their supposed "oppressors" define them? Is every thin person an oppressor of the fat? NO WAY! That blog insults all my thin friends, yeah I do have them, I obviously am not hanging out at the NAAFA clubhouse and there are fat friends too.

Yes this is what I am talking about when I am talking about the extreme liberalism of the size acceptance movement as a whole. Odd ways of thinking, being and more where the world view has been skewed in such an extraordinary way. I have realized I do not even think like these folks. It's insanity!

What is thin privilege? THIS is thin privilege.

Thin (and other forms of) privilege is expecting fat people to educate you about why fat discrimination is wrong.

Discrimination and bigotry is feeling justified in your uneducated opinion when fat (and other marginalized) people choose not to educate you about your bigotry.

So when you send asks or submissions to this blog demanding I educate you about why fat people aren’t just terrible lazy broken humans making themselves fat and hence burdens that need to be eliminated in some form or another, and I choose not to educate you, that doesn’t mean that I can’t educate you and you’ve called my bluff (I can, and you haven’t), or that I’m a jerk if I don’t respond to you.

You don’t have any right to expect me to tell you why you shouldn’t hate or think less of fat people—reasons that you’ll ignore anyway, so you can continue to feel good about being privileged, so you can avoid the discomfort that comes with realizing that you have a whole hell of a lot of unearned advantages in your life.

You want to believe you’ve ‘earned’ thinness and thin privilege and fat people have ‘earned’ fatness and fat bigotry, but the truth is: you’re wrong. Factually, and morally, wrong.

Educate yourself. There are plenty of resources out there: Gina Kolata and Paul Campos and Marilyn Wann and Linda Bacon have decent accessible books; there are the archives of the Junkfoodscience blog, which link to a ton of good studies and debunks a ton of bad ones; hell, just search Google Scholar and try to find one study NOT funded by a drug company trying to shill a diet product/procedure that shows dieting works for most people long term (post five years), and that surgical weight loss procedures don’t cause more harm than good.

But no. You don’t carry the burden of proving your bigoted beliefs, because you have them reinforced by junk science articles and news reports almost every day, diet commercials full of “it’s so easy!” before-and-afters (that’s MARKETING, not science!), and not a fat person portrayed in a positive or realistic way pretty much anywhere in TV, film, and books.

Don’t you get it? THAT IS THIN PRIVILEGE.

Hey just so people reading this blog know it, I've been called by a couple of these identity politic types "a bigot"! LOL against fat people. That one is absurd given I am 500lbs but reason doesn't even enter into this stuff. This is what they call everyone who disagrees with them. Such types preach tolerance but really have none of it. How do they expect to win thin people over, if they have made them into the "OTHER"? Why was that even necessary?

The identity politics stuff DOES influence the truth fall between the middle where these folks become the enablers to the diet industrial complex. After all if your main gig is telling people "I'm fat and proud of it", why would you face that obesity may bring some hardships? Here too we see the focus on the BODY, the EXTERNALS of a human being rather then soul and spirit to the point the THIN are now seen as the enemy.

These type of agitators always speak of education, I often think of the communist re-education camps. "We must EDUCATE you!" LOL You'll never see them facing endocrine disruptors or how modern society has changed in some unwholesome ways. Sure they are RIGHT about the lying studies that work on behalf to float the whole false diet boat, but what do they hope to accomplish by naming THIN people as their enemies incarnate?

God help us all!

What is Fat Studies?

I took the women studies class in college an eon ago, and realize it was more a brainwashing indoctrination session, to love hyper-feminism, and to "worship" the "goddess". My professor there was hard core. Shout that you were against the patriarchy, and ready to go back in time, to burn a few bras and your "A" was almost guaranteed.

Now we have "fat studies".

Should I write a paper? I doubt academia would give me much of an ear. That is it's own world, if you divert from the "rules" in the size acceptance world, refusing to celebrate fat, and desiring a real cure--not the nonsense they are shoveling--any free thinkers need not reply. Even here, how could I write a paper of "fat ACCEPTANCE", I do not accept my fat, my fat is equal to my almost deaf ears, annoying but to be celebrated? Forget it. Some of the language here gets kind of odd.

Fat Studies reminds us that all bodies are inscribed with the fears and hopes of the particular culture they reside in, and these emotions often are mislabeled as objective “facts” of health and biology. More importantly, perhaps, Fat Studies insists on the recognition that fat identity can be as fundamental and world-shaping as other identity constructs analyzed within the academy and represented in media

.

What about the hope to stay alive? This seems a lot to ask Mr. Adipose cell...I suppose Mr. Adipose does not realize the trouble he has caused.


What's wrong with using the words overweight or obesity? They want those only used in "ironic" fashion.

Out of Touch Marilyn Wann: Let's Have a Parade!

I know life is different in wealthy San Francisco, surrounded by loving fat adorers, but how out of touch can someone get?

"A Big Fat Parade Could Expand Living Space For Us All"

Is it just me, am I too serious of a person, or are all the party balloons, clowns, parades and belly dancers in the size acceptance world just a bit too CLOYING?

Yeah I am the personality who wishes it was 1890, collects stamps and loves antiques but there is something about Marilyn Wann that grinds my gears and I find so disingenuous. What about a little self respect? Why do us fat people have to "prove" ourselves to the rest of the world, like on a hyper-jolly freak out wearing pink and or pink hair to win the affections of others? It is actually kind of a world of froth to the more intellectual among us. Even outside to the more conservative, what if you do not relate to or agree with the hyper-liberal identity politics? Sex worker parade? You HAVE got to be kidding me, what does this mean, that now we have to support vice and prostitution too? Well I talked about what I saw in size acceptance myself. I know many in San Francisco have lost it, but guess that tells me enough there.

I vote for a big, fat parade for all of us! As a fat activist, I want people of all body types to waddle with me. A big, fat parade is also a sex-worker parade and an antiracism parade and a parade for gender diversity and a parade with people of different abilities and mobilities and a queer march and an all-ages parade, and more. Because that's who we are.

Instead of making long lists of outsider groups who deserve long-overdue welcome and then debating who's deserving and who isn't, what if we were all welcome all the time?

What would Marilyn Wann say to me, if I told her, I can't walk enough to be in a parade? Remember I do not use a scooter, though I do own one, I actually refused a wheelchair years ago, fearing I would lose mobility. What would a parade mean to my personal life? Some of my friends are thin, are they going to have a THIN parade to counteract my FAT parade? LOL

Then there is her weird "I am so healthy" message, OK we get it. She has been repeating it for years. I agree there are many mid-sized people out there, who while they probably aren't going to do an Iron Man marathon, can be pretty healthy, but what does this say to fat people who aren't? At least she has tempered some of that down.

I'll be there to continue learning what I can do. As a fat activist, I often want to say, "But I'm healthy! Look, I eat my veggies and exercise." While it's fun to flout stereotypes, social justice is unacceptably precarious if it depends on good behavior, or on access to other flavors of unearned privilege. For example, gaining respect for fat people who happen to be rich or healthy or white or able-bodied at the expense of other fat people is just more yuck, not yum. Human rights should be based on the fact that we're all here, not on some begrudging notion that some of us should or would change if we could.

Sigh...my world view doesn't even match these folks, not at all nor do I want it too. It's too bad that fat people are being suckered into this stuff....

Perhaps they see the socialist 'Communist? Left? as their fat salvation for real [notice the name of the group she lovingly mentions CASTRO towards the end...that her friend is in]....however once the gulags are in place, and food is meted out via portion control and fiat, perhaps they ought to rethink that, and understand how food and everything else was controlled even in China under Mao, with every village council counting the food, and number of chickens and pigs.

What is sad is how this type of rhetoric does to affect fat people. "Have a parade!"

Years ago, I got in a conversation with Marilyn Wann or someone claiming to be her online but it was her message board so believed it was her, I think at the time I was near my peak weight and probably about to die, wish I could remember the exact year but it was at least 10 years ago if not more. I told her, "Please go to a nursing home that specializes in bariatrics to see what obesity really does to people and how it ravages lives". She was actually quite offended by this. Even one of my friends who had lost weight but had grown more ill from another condition, was in a nursing home where she saw a score of people too overweight to function in their 30s, and 40s and beyond. Marilyn Wann probably would be in shock that I am even still alive to this day. This was around the time right before I lost weight down from near 700lbs and got involved in my last community. I described my life at the time to her. I felt absolutely no empathy whatsoever, and was condemned for not being "fat positive". She seems to be another "community organizer" and "social engineer" type that cares nothing about normal fat people, just there to influence minds and opinions for the powers that be throwing up distraction. For someone like this, I am sure it's a good money-making gig but not much more then that, but she doesn't speak for me.

Fat Studies Classes?

Colleges are now promoting fat studies classes. Some of this sounds like it "could" be good, but then is anyone studying anything that is meaningful or will this be the same brainwashathon I got in a women's study class in college back in the late 80s? Back then to get an A, all you had to do was rant a bit about "patriarchal society", and how you were reading books on the "goddess". It was liberal social programming under the guise of "education". Are liberal professors demanding that their fat studies students hold to the NAAFA line? What does fat studies really include? Out of curiosity, I had to go look....

Examines body weight, shape, and size as an area of human
difference subject to privilege and discrimination that
intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender,
race, class, age, sexual orientation, and ability. Employs a
multi-disciplinary approach spanning the behavioral sciences
and humanities. Frames weight-based oppression as a social
justice issue, exploring forms of activism used to counter
weightism perpetuated throughout various societal
institutions.

I can't say some of the above doesn't bug me. It reads like the out of touch-Whole Foods granola munching upper class crowd, trying to put out the usual liberal feelers for a new victimized class, they can cry copious tears of guilt over, while hanging out at the country club. While they are correct about discrimination and being wise to some of it makes sense, but the liberal message of oppression and "victim hood" is right there for the reading.

Why do young people need to study fat people's oppression? What is this a new form of Fat liberation theology? Wouldn't this have the affect of marginalizing fat people further? Here too "weight" is only one aspect of a person, Fat Studies turns what is a physical attribute, which happens to be just a minor part of what a person is, into a overwhelming proposition.
Will this be more ideological testing via the fat studies world? Here is a fat studies reader. You know elsewhere I told people elsewhere how both parties lie to Americans for a certain agenda, Republican/Democrat, what is the difference, both are selling this country down the wealth clean-out, outsourcing globalist river. Fat people are being sold out too between two side of a divide as well, the fat studies crowd, won't tell the truth about what is happening to our food and environment, the true medical implications of weight, or talk about the toxic American lifestyle, on the other side we have the haters who scream "You gluttons: you control your world and your body totally". Both are liars.